Baka pyramid
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 Grave shaft of the Baka pyramid
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The Baka pyramid (also called the Unfinished Pyramid of Saujet el-Arjan and the Great Excavation of Saujet el-Arjan ) is an ancient Egyptian tomb from the late 3rd or early 4th dynasty ( Old Kingdom ).
Although the excavation is now called the " Pyramid of Baka", "Baka Pyramid" or " Bicheris Pyramid" , its assignment to any of the rulers of the Old Kingdom is highly controversial. The attribution is based on worker graffiti , some of which contain a cartouche name, which, however, is no longer fully preserved and, moreover, was only handed down by the discoverer in unclean handwriting. Therefore, the king's name cannot be assigned to contemporary documents or Ramessid king lists today. It is thus unknown who the tomb lord was, and any pyramid name remains speculative. The chronological classification in the Old Kingdom is considered certain due to some structural features. The name of the pyramid that has started is a huge T-shaped excavation. Only the foundation and the access stairs were finished, the rest of the grave was left unfinished and abandoned.
Research history
The Baka pyramid was discovered and excavated for the first time in 1842 and 1846 by the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius . He examined the shaft and its immediate surroundings and cataloged the structure in his list of pyramids under the number XIII.
In the years 1905 to 1912, the Italian archaeologist Alessandro Barsanti examined the grave shaft. Gaston Maspero visited the excavation site in 1906 and was impressed by the grave shaft. Barsanti died in 1917 and could no longer complete his work. The First World War brought all excavation work to a standstill and the grave shaft and the surrounding area were no longer explored until 1954. In 1954 they were looking for a suitable location for the film Land of the Pharaohs and the area around Saujet el-Arjan seemed to be suitable. The area and the grave shaft were cleared of rubble and sand, under which the Baka pyramid had been buried in the meantime.
Today the Baka pyramid is in a restricted military area (see below: location); Excavations are not permitted until further notice. The pyramid necropolis is mostly built over with bungalows and rumors have it that the grave shaft is being used as a local garbage dump. The current condition of the grave complex is unknown and possibly disastrous.
description
location
The Baka pyramid is located in the north-east sector of the restricted area of Saujet el-Arjan, about 8 km south-southeast of Giza , near the neighboring village of Saujet Abu Mosallam .
Grave superstructure
Almost nothing is known about the planned or started grave superstructure. So far, only a square excavation with an area of 200 m × 200 m could be detected, which was carved out of the natural rock bed. Faint traces of a base surrounding the foundation, typical of limestone- clad pyramids , were discovered. The construction of the actual pyramid seems to have been finished immediately after the foundation was laid. Miroslav Verner has calculated that the Baka pyramid with a base length of 200 m × 200 m and an external inclination of 52 ° (like the famous Cheops pyramid ) is about the same size as the Chephren pyramid (i.e. 143.87 m high) could have been. Alessandro Barsanti had already made the same estimate. Verner also throws in that the scope of building foundations for pyramid tombs was often larger than the base of the pyramid itself. The Baka pyramid could therefore have been smaller. Rainer Stadelmann agrees with Verner and at the same time refers to Vito Maragioglio's work. Stadelmann assesses Barsanti's estimates as "exaggerated" and assumes a significantly smaller plan size for the monument.
Grave substructure
The grave substructure includes a large T-shaped shaft. The access passage points from south to north, the burial chamber from east to west. The entrance is formed by a steep staircase, about 106.20 m long, which is interrupted halfway up by a longer landing. Up to this paragraph the stairs have a descent angle of 17 °, after the paragraph they are incomparably steeper with 25 °. The original purpose of the landing is unknown; possibly a device for blocking stones was provided there. Barsanti found such a possible blocking stone at the foot of the stairs, it differs from the other granite blocks by its flat cuboid shape . The grave shaft is 25 to 27 m long, 11.70 m wide and 21 m deep. Although it has polished interior walls, there are no traces of wall paneling or a ceiling. Only the floor covering was finished. It consists of massive granite blocks with polished tops. Each block is approximately 4.5 m long and 2.5 m thick. The blocks weigh about 9 tons on average . During the first uncovering under the direction of Alessandro Barsanti, the excavators found some of the granite blocks loose; according to Barsanti, they were “downright jumbled up”. Barsanti was able to determine the originally planned height of the burial chamber of approx. 3.06 m thanks to a surprising downpour : the rainwater accumulated briefly up to the said height, as the walls were polished and smoothed. Above it, however, the water immediately seeped into the uncultivated subsoil.
An unusual sarcophagus was discovered near the western end of the burial chamber . It is oval and embedded in one of the floor blocks. The sarcophagus is 3.15 m long, 2.22 m wide, 1.50 m deep and too big to fit through the access passage. It was therefore probably lowered over the main shaft while the foundation was being laid. The oval opening of the sarcophagus is surrounded by a collar 43 cm high. The oval lid was found in situ , so the sarcophagus was still closed when it was found. The lid measures 2.95 m × 1.90 m on the outside and 2.49 m × 1.46 m on the inside, the thickness of the inner collar is about 23 cm. The lid and sarcophagus opening closed perfectly thanks to their protrusions. Alessandro Barsanti states in his excavation reports that sparse remains of a burial have been discovered inside the sarcophagus. Strangely enough, however, they have never been examined more closely and are now lost. Barsanti also claims to have found a small slate with the name of King Radjedef on it.
necropolis
A few remains reveal an enclosure wall measuring 465 m × 420 m. With its building layout and orientation, the entire complex is very similar to the necropolis of King Radjedef in Abu Roasch . Since the construction of the pyramid was given up immediately after the foundation was laid, associated buildings such as mortuary temple , access road, valley temple and queen pyramid were never started.
Dating
Identification of the grave lord
Egyptologists and historians are still discussing assigning the pyramid to a possible tomb lord. Since no grave goods were found and the finds claimed by Barsanti have neither been published nor preserved, it is difficult to identify the grave owner. Rainer Stadelmann doubts Barsanti's statements, especially those about the alleged discovery of the Radjedef memorial plaque.
According to his excavation reports, Alessandro Barsanti discovered a total of 66 worker graffiti, both in the grave shaft of the Baka pyramid and in the surrounding area. Of these, around 57 inscriptions come from the grave shaft itself. The inscriptions consisted of black and red ink and mainly contained the names of workers' teams and the future name of the planned necropolis: Seba? -Ka (German: "Star of the King? -Ka"). The team name that is mentioned most often (and therefore belonged to the leading team of workers) was Wer-ef-seba -? - ka (German: "As big as the king's star? -Ka"). Inscription No. 35 contains the name of a certain Neferka-nefer ( Eng . "His beautiful Ka is perfect"). Since there are no titles, it is problematic to classify this person in the time of the king. Graffiti No. 15 and No. 52 mention an interesting king's name: Nebkare (Eng. "(My) Lord is the Ka des Re "). It remains to be seen whether it is actually the name of a (as yet unknown) king or that of a crown prince. Another graffito, No. 55, bears the gold name Neb-hedjetnub (Eng. "Lord of the Golden Crown").
The main focus of Egyptologists and historians is on six graffiti that contain a cartouche name. It consists of two characters, of which the second (therefore lower) symbol can be identified as the Ka symbol. The first (and thus upper) symbol was so negligently drawn by Barsanti that it remains illegible to this day. Unfortunately, Barsanti had neglected to copy the inscriptions as facsimiles and instead made rough hand sketches. Therefore, the king's name in question can no longer be fully reconstructed, and research has given various readings and attempts to equate it. Kurt Sethe reads Nebka (German: "The Lord is his Ka"), Jean-Philippe Lauer reads Bik-Ka (German: "His Ka is divine") and, alternatively, Hor-Ka (German: "Horus is his Ka") ), Peter Kaplony reads Schena-Ka (German: "His Ka is his strength"), Gaston Maspero is considering a reading as Nefer-Ka (German: "His Ka is beautiful") and Klaus Baer reads Wehem-Ka . Wolfhart Westendorf even suggests depicting a giraffe , an animal that was said to have shamanic properties in ancient Egypt .
Egyptologists such as Jürgen von Beckerath and George Andrew Reisner suggest a possible reading as Ba-Ka (Eng. "His soul is his Ka") and identify the tomb lord as the former crown prince and eldest son of the Radjedef, Prince Baka . Its name was written with the signs of a ram and the Ka symbol. Beckerath suspects that Baka survived his father and came to the throne for a very short time. But shortly after ascending to the throne, Baka died unexpectedly and the construction project for his grave was abandoned early. His name would have been posthumously changed to Bakare (German: "Soul and Ka des Re") and passed down as Bicheris in Greek royal lists .
Aidan Dodson identifies the first cartridge symbol as a sitting Seth animal and reads the king's name as Seth-Ka (Eng. "Seth is my Ka"). He suspects another son and crown prince of the Radjedef, Prince Setka , as the grave lords. Like Baka, Sethka may have outlived his father and ruled for a very short time. Dodson doubts a reading as Baka (right) . He cites the reason that the cartridge in the grave shaft does not contain a sun symbol . In his opinion it would be unusual for a king to omit the symbol of Ra when he ascended the throne, if his name was dedicated to this deity. Instead, Setka could have got into a dispute with the royal family over the rights to the throne, which is why he was buried elsewhere, not in Giza. His name would then have been deleted from the king's lists because of the brief reign and family disputes.
Temporal allocation
Dating is also linked to the problem of assignment to a grave lord. Since the king's name is no longer legible, research tries to orient itself to the architectural style of the tomb. Beckerath, Reisner and Dodson refer to building elements as they were typical for the 4th Dynasty: hewn granite blocks of such size, as shown in the grave shaft of the Baka pyramid, were not common as grave cladding before King Cheops . They also refer to sarcophagus fragments from the pyramid of Radjedef , which are made of the same material (rose granite). The Radjedef coffin also originally had an oval shape and was incorporated into the floor covering. They also refer to Barsanti's report on the alleged finding of a memorial plaque for Radjedef. Overall, Beckerath, Reisner and Dodson are convinced that the Baka pyramid is a building of the middle 4th dynasty.
Egyptologists such as Kurt Sethe, Nabil MA Swelim and Rainer Stadelmann strongly disagree and point out that the use of hewn granite as grave cladding was known even before Cheops: The floor of the burial chambers of Chasechemui (last ruler of the 2nd dynasty ) is made of granite slabs designed. In addition, it is unusual for the 4th dynasty for a royal tomb to consist of a vertical shaft; this was only common for the pyramids of the 3rd dynasty (for example the Djoser pyramid ). The orientation of a pyramid necropolis from south to north is also a classic feature of the 3rd dynasty. The architectural similarities between the Radjedef pyramid and the Baka pyramid are remarkable, but not sufficient to establish a date in the 4th dynasty. Finally, Sethe, Swelim and Stadelmann draw attention to Barsanti's unsubstantiated claims about the discovery of a Radjedef plaque. They doubt its credibility because Barsanti never published his findings. The scholars believe it is possible that the Baka pyramid was built towards the end of the 3rd Dynasty.
literature
- Alexandre Barsanti , Gaston Maspero: Fouilles de Zaouiét el-Aryan (1904–1905). In: Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Égypte. (ASAE) Volume 7, Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1906, pp. 260–286 ( PDF; 30.1 MB ).
- Mark Lehner : The Secret of the Pyramids in Egypt. Orbis, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-572-01039-X , p. 139.
- Karl Richard Lepsius : Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia. First volume of text. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1897, p. 128 ( online version ).
- Bertha Porter , Rosalind LB Moss , Ethel W. Burney: Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. Volume III: Memphis. Part 1: Abû Rawâsh to Abûṣîr. 2nd edition, revised and expanded by Jaromír Málek . The Clarendon Press / Griffith Institute / Ashmolean Museum , Oxford 1974, pp. 312-313 ( PDF file; 19.5 MB ); Retrieved from The Digital Topographical Bibliography .
- Rainer Stadelmann: Saujet el-Arjan. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. (LÄ) Volume 5, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-447-02489-5 , pp. 496-497.
- Rainer Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids: from brick building to world wonder. (= Cultural history of the ancient world. Vol. 30). von Zabern, Mainz 1985, ISBN 3-8053-0855-8 , p. 77.
- Nabil Swelim : Some Problems on the History of the Third Dynasty. (= Archaeological and historical studies. Vol. 7). Archaeological Society of Alexandria, Cairo 1983.
- Miroslav Verner: The pyramids. (= rororo-Sachbuch. Volume 60890), Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-499-60890-1 , pp. 270-272.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The determinative for “pyramid” has not been preserved.
- ↑ a b c d e Roman Gundacker: On the structure of the pyramid names of the 4th dynasty. In: Sokar. 18th edition 2009, ISSN 1438-7956 , pp. 26-30.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Miroslav Verner: The pyramids. Reinbek 1999, pp. 270-272.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Rainer Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids: from brick construction to world wonder. Mainz 1985, pp. 77, 140-145.
- ^ Karl Richard Lepsius: Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia. Berlin 1849, p. 29.
- ↑ a b c d e Alexandre Barsanti, Gaston Maspero: Fouilles de Zaouiét el-Aryan (1904–1905). In: Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Égypte. (ASAE) Volume 7, Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1906, p. 286, Figure 10.
- ↑ a b c d e R. Stadelmann: Saujet el-Arjan. In: LÄ Vol. 5, Wiesbaden 1984, p. 310, 497-498.
- ^ A b c N. Swelim: Some Problems on the History of the Third Dynasty. Cairo 1983, pp. 143-145.
- ↑ a b c Aidan Dodson: On the date of the unfinished pyramid of Zawyet el-Aryan. In: Discussion in Egyptology. (DiE) Vol. 3, Oxford 1985, pp. 21-24.
- ^ Miroslav Verner: Archaeological Remarks on the 4th and 5th Dynasty Chronology. In: Archives Orientální. Vol. 69, Prague 2001, pp. 363-418.
- ^ N. Swelim: Some Problems on the History of the Third Dynasty. Cairo 1983, p. 143.
- ↑ Wolfhart Westendorf: Notes and corrections to the Lexicon of Egyptology. In: Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto: Lexicon of Egyptology. 5th volume. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-447-02489-5 , p. 66.
- ↑ Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronology of the Pharaonic Egypt. The timing of Egyptian history from prehistoric times to 332 BC BC (= Munich Egyptological Studies. Vol. 46). von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2310-7 , p. 158.
- ^ Aidan Dodson, Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. The American University in Cairo Press, London 2004, ISBN 977-424-878-3 , p. 61.
Coordinates: 29 ° 56 '24.4 " N , 31 ° 9' 5.6" E